If I Could Be Anything

If I Could Be Anything

​If I could do anything, live anyway, take any adventure, or be any one I could imagine, I would simply begin with poverty. I would begin my life with two married parents and one older sister in a small two-bedroom home in a low-income neighborhood. I would be two or three before I get my first dog and I would name him Spike, not because I like that name but because one of the small girls in a cartoon on the television who looked nothing like me would have named her dog that. My parents would end up homeless and my older sister and I would ride in the back seat of a two-door white Ford truck looking for homes in the middle of the night. I imagine the rides would feel like adventures that never ended, and I would doze in and out of sleep right before using the bathroom on the side of the road. At this point your probably wondering “Why this life?” but bear with me and it will all come together. My parents would finally find our dream home and we would move in and live happily ever after, that is until they would decide that the relationship is causing more pain than peace and ultimately separate. If I could be any teenager, I could imagine during this time I would have been the cool kid with the single parent. Attending every party, I could get my hands on and failing miserably in school. I would probably drop out my sophomore year because that is what the principles would recommend at the alternative school, I would have no choice but to attend. On graduation day I would tell my friends that I cannot attend the ceremony because I have to work, but in reality I would not be able bare sitting in an audience right next to my shame, clapping for people I am not happy for. I imagine that I would graduate a year late because by the time I realize school is important I would have already been one year behind “better late than never.”

​My imaginable adventures would consist of moving to Dallas right after my first year of College and living there for two years. I would become curious of what the rest of the world had to offer and begin my first excursion by booking a flight to New York City. I would imagine that I would end up canceling that flight because of the small-minded influences in the community I grew up in releasing the sweet fragrance of fear. Ultimately, I would get comfortable with that fear and realize that it is nothing, but the side effect of a rare disease called Courage. I would take courses to become a TEFL, TESOL instructor in a foreign country some where far away from what I know like Costa Rica. From there I would book a job in another remote location like the Dominican Republic teaching small children, using the skills and certifications I earned. I would move back to the United States only to find my parents re united and living in a newly built home. I would complete my pursuit in obtaining my degree at Oklahoma State University, allowing my mother to see me walk across the stage for the first time. Continuing my education and pursuit in Journalism at Berkeley University, while writing for Urban Writers.

​If I could do anything, live anyway, take any adventure, or be any one I could imagine, I would simply be myself, I would do everything I have done, I would take every adventure that I have been on, I would live the life that I have lived, because I couldn’t imagine being anyone other than myself.

To be continued………

​​​​By- Simone J Phillips